Moreover, seeing that the whole course of events is deduced from providence, and nothing is left free to human design, it comes to pass that our vices also are referred to the Author of all good--a thought than which none more abominable can possibly be conceived.

Again, no ground is left for hope or prayer, since how can we hope for blessings, or pray for mercy, when every object of desire depends upon the links of an unalterable chain of causation?
Gone, then, is the one means of intercourse between God and man--the communion of hope and prayer--if it be true that we ever earn the inestimable recompense of the Divine favour at the price of a due humility; for this is the one way whereby men seem able to hold communion with God, and are joined to that unapproachable light by the very act of supplication, even before they obtain their petitions.

Then, since these things can scarcely be believed to have any efficacy, if the necessity of future events be admitted, what means will there be whereby we may be brought near and cleave to Him who is the supreme Head of all?
Wherefore it needs must be that the human race, even as thou didst erstwhile declare in song, parted and dissevered from its Source, should fall to ruin.' FOOTNOTES: [P] _I.e._, the necessity of the truth of the statement from the fact.
SONG III.
TRUTH'S PARADOXES.
Why does a strange discordance break The ordered scheme's fair harmony?
Hath God decreed 'twixt truth and truth There may such lasting warfare be, That truths, each severally plain, We strive to reconcile in vain?
Or is the discord not in truth, Since truth is self consistent ever?
But, close in fleshly wrappings held, The blinded mind of man can never Discern--so faint her taper shines-- The subtle chain that all combines?
Ah! then why burns man's restless mind Truth's hidden portals to unclose?
Knows he already what he seeks?
Why toil to seek it, if he knows?
Yet, haply if he knoweth not, Why blindly seek he knows not what ?[Q] Who for a good he knows not sighs?
Who can an unknown end pursue?
How find?
How e'en when haply found Hail that strange form he never knew?
Or is it that man's inmost soul Once knew each part and knew the whole?
Now, though by fleshly vapours dimmed, Not all forgot her visions past; For while the several parts are lost, To the one whole she cleaveth fast; Whence he who yearns the truth to find Is neither sound of sight nor blind.
For neither does he know in full, Nor is he reft of knowledge quite; But, holding still to what is left, He gropes in the uncertain light, And by the part that still survives To win back all he bravely strives.
FOOTNOTES: [Q] Compare Plato, 'Meno,' 80; Jowett, vol.ii., pp.

39, 40.
IV.
Then said she: 'This debate about providence is an old one, and is vigorously discussed by Cicero in his "Divination"; thou also hast long and earnestly pondered the problem, yet no one has had diligence and perseverance enough to find a solution.

And the reason of this obscurity is that the movement of human reasoning cannot cope with the simplicity of the Divine foreknowledge; for if a conception of its nature could in any wise be framed, no shadow of uncertainty would remain.